The census of elephant and golden langoor is going on in the Ripun reserve forest under Kachugaon division in Kokrajhar district. In the census carried out in Central and Raimana range it pegged a total count of 125 elephants and 650 golden langoors, sources added. Speaking to the Sentinel RN Boro, DFO, Kachugaon said there were four ranges under Kachugaon division

The turtle population of India is under threat because Bengal will not stop consumption of turtle meat. The charge was levelled at a meet by officials of the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) on Tuesday. "Freshwater turtles have become extinct in Bengal in the past 10 years. Now, every turtle consignment seized elsewhere is headed here,' says Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of WSO and a member of the government's National Board for Wildlife. The NGO works for the preservation of freshwater turtles in the Mahanadi basin.

You can knock off two more tigers from the 1,411 count. Days after the national tiger count came up with this alarmingly low figure for tigers left in the wild, forest officials have seized two tiger skins

NEW DELHI, Feb 13

Though camel slaughter is banned in India, slaughter and export of camel meat is thriving in many districts of Uttar Pradesh. According to unofficial estimates, more than 5,000 to 7,000 camels are transported from Rajasthan to abattoirs in western Uttar Pradesh every month. The meat is then exported to a number of countries in western Asian countries.

YOU'LL be glad to know that in the concrete jungle of Mumbai, some beautiful creatures are giving children something to smile about.

From pugmarks to high-tech equipment like satellite imagery and camera-traps. That's how census on wild animals in Jammu and Kashmir is graduating. Come March, and the state Government will undertake two scientific censuses on three wild animals: the highly-endangered hangul, also called the Kashmir stag, the common leopard and the Asiatic black bear, also known as Himalayan black bear. To be conducted in collaboration with the Central Government, the censuses will also get expert help from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. J&K Chief Wildlife Warden A K Srivastava says, "While one census will be on the endangered hangul, found only in Kashmir, the other will focus on the common leopard and the Asiatic black bear.' The Kashmir stag census will be utilised to protect the endangered animal, and the other will be used to deal with the increasing incidents of the man-animal conflicts in the state. Srivastava says the earlier censuses conducted by the state Government were not accurate as these were carried out "on the basis of their pugmarks'. "But the new censuses will be carried out, using the most high-tech equipment like satellite imagery and camera-traps,' he adds. Cameras will be put on trees in the forest areas, which will trap the movement of wild animals, recording their actual number with the help of satellite imagery. The Centre has agreed in principle to fund the census projects. "In Jammu, experts from the Wildlife Institute of India will hold a three-day training workshop for divisional forest officers and range officers of the state forest and wildlife departments,' adds Srivastava. While the hangul is not harmful, the other two have caused man-animal conflicts in the state over the past two years, killing over three dozen and injuring more than 200 people. While the hangul census will mainly focus on the Kashmir valley, the other one will cover various areas

KRISHNAGAR, Feb. 12: At a time when the critically endangered White-rumped Vulture Gyps, who were once a common sight in West Bengal, have indeed made a self-styled effort to be re-colonised in the Banguria forest near Bethuadahari Wildlife Sanctuary (BWS) in Nadia, hectic preparations are on to catch the spotted deer inside the sanctuary for its census after a long gap of seven years.